The criticisms that trail Nigerian Government’s support for the embattled Minister of Communication and Digital Economy and the report by the Nigerian Center for Disease Control (NCDC) of zero COVID-19-related death for the ninth consecutive days are some of the leading stories in Nigerian newspapers on Friday.
The Guardian reports that Muhammadu Buhari government’s support for under-fire minister of communication and digital economy Isa Ali Pantami has drawn sharp criticisms from many Nigerians.
Buhari’s spokesman Garba Shehu on Thursday said the government was contented with Pantami’s apologies over his past support for Taliban and Al-Qaeda and described the calls for him to resign as a “manufactured dispute”.
Al-Qaeda carried out multiple attacks on Western countries including the bombing of the World Trade Centre on September 11, 2001.
“The Minister has, rightly, apologised for what he said in the early 2000s,” Shehu said in a statement.
“The views were absolutely unacceptable then and would be equally unacceptable today, were he to repeat them. But he will not repeat them – for he has publicly and permanently condemned his earlier utterances as wrong.”
Shehu’s statement has been met with criticisms, especially by many young Nigerians who feel they had been hard done by the government for things far less grievous than expressing support for terror groups that have killed thousands of people all over the world.
The newspaper says that the World Bank has stated that businesses in Nigeria suffer an annual loss of $29 billion as a result of an “unreliable” power supply, saying the situation has resulted in the refusal of consumers to pay their bills.
Top officials of the bank said this at ‘World Bank Dialogue on Fostering Knowledge-Sharing and Dialogue on Power Sector Issues in Nigeria’.
Presenting the bank’s Power Sector Recovery Programme (PSRP) fact sheet, World Bank’s practice manager, West and Central Africa Energy, Ashish Khanna, said the majority of Nigerians are reluctant to pay for electricity because the bills are not “transparent and clear.
“Businesses in Nigeria lose about $29 billion annually because of unreliable electricity. Nigerian utilities get paid for only a half of electricity they receive,” the report read.
It added that for every N10 worth of electricity received by electricity distribution companies (DisCos), about N2.6 is lost to poor distribution infrastructure and through power theft while another N3.4 is not paid for. “Six in 10 of registered customers are not metered, and their electricity bills are not transparent and clear.
The Vanguard reports that the Nigerian Center for Disease Control (NCDC) reported zero COVID-19-related death for the ninth consecutive days as the nation’s fatality toll remains 2,061.
The NCDC disclosed this on its official Twitter handle on Tuesday. Nigeria last registered a COVID-19-related death on April 11. It reports that aside from April 11, the number of reported deaths in week 14, which was April 6, was two from two states.
According to the report, the cumulatively since the outbreak began in week 9, 2020, there have been reported 2,061 deaths with a case fatality rate (CFR) of 1.3 per cent.
The NCDC said it conducted 1,870,915 COVID-19 tests since Feb. 27, 2020, adding that 120 infections were registered as at Tuesday, bringing the cumulative number of cases to 164,423.
It said that the additional infections were registered from seven states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
ThisDay says that the Nigerian government has deployed hidden and public cameras to all passport offices across the country to check passport racketeering and corruption.
Addressing journalists yesterday after a meeting with all passport control officers in 42 passport offices nationwide and immigration attaches in foreign missions who joined the meeting virtually, the Minister of Interior, Mr. Rauf Aregbesola, said efforts are on to embed security operatives both seen and unseen, in all passport offices.
“They will wear body cameras. They will detect and report any form of solicitations, inflation, improper communications, extortion, diversion, hoarding and other corrupt practices,” warning that those caught will be dealt with according to the law.
The minister further disclosed that an Ombudsman would also be created for members of the public to receive complaints and reports on officers trying to deviate from prescribed guidelines and subvert process.
Aregbesola said: “Therefore, I am declaring a zero-tolerance stance to all forms of touting. No applicant will be made to pay any illegitimate fees.”
The Punch reports that the Federal Government on Thursday said about N1.8tn of its N2.3tn COVID-19 economic stimulus package would be funded by financial institutions.
It also disclosed that about N288bn from the N500bn of the package funded through the 2021 budget has so far been released, adding that it was currently in the process of releasing a second batch.
The Minister of State for Budget and National Planning, Mr. Clem Agba, disclosed this on the side-lines of the National Steering Committee meeting of the Nigeria Open Government Partnership in Abuja.
Commenting on measures adopted to salvage the economy from collapse as a result of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the minister said the N2.3tn stimulus package had to be deployed. “And there are basically two sources of funding the N2.3tn.
The first N500bn had to come from special accounts, which were embedded in the revised budget,” he stated. Agba added, “And then the other N1.8tn, which has programmes that were set up to be financed through the financial institutions.
The Sun says that in a move aimed at encouraging infrastructural development, the Federal Government has granted the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) Company N20 billion tax waiver for the construction of Bodo Bonny Bridge in Bayelsa State.
The Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) presented the road infrastructure credit certificate to LNG in Abuja on Thursday.
NLNG has so far received three credit certificates in the last three years valued at N46 billion. Thursday’s document is the third while the fourth is expected later in the year.
President Muhammadu Buhari signed Executive Order Seven (07) in 2020 authorising companies that provide critical infrastructure like roads to be granted tax waivers.
The Bodo Bonny Bridge and roads across Okpobo channels in Rivers State were constructed by Julius Berger at a cost of N120. 681 billion.
For this purpose, the government has granted the Company a tax waiver of N20 billion. Executive Chairman of the FIRS, Muhammad Nami, represented by Coordinating Director, Tax Operations Group, Mr. Femi Oluwaniyi, urged other corporate bodies across the country to join NLNG and Dangote Nigeria Limited to take advantage of government’s tax credit facility.
GIK/APA